Opponents of mercury amalgam have researched 4 main questions:

1. Do dental amalgam fillings contain a toxic material?
2. Does the toxic material exit the fillings?
3. Does the released toxic material enter the body?
4. Does the toxic material reach harmful levels within the body?


1. Do dental amalgam fillings contain a toxic material?
Actually, all of the elements comprising dental amalgams are toxic metals. Mercury is, by far, the most toxic of them. Few people realize the severity of mercury as a toxin. Sharma and Obersteiner established that mercury is more toxic than lead, cadmium, or even arsenic.

Mercury vapor has a very high absorption rate, and is capable of entering the human body very rapidly and completely. Mercury vapor is fat-soluble, and neutral electrically. It therefore has the ability to easily penetrate cell membranes and pass rapidly into the body from the blood into body cells.


2. Does the toxic material exit the fillings?
This is no longer an issue. The previous position of amalgam advocates that mercury is “locked” into the amalgam has clearly proved to be erroneous. Even the National Institute of Dental Research, and the ADA, have publicly acknowledged that mercury is released from dental amalgam after stimulation such as chewing or brushing. Dental amalgams become miniature batteries when placed in electrolytes (saliva, plaque, etc.) in the mouth. Electrical currents are produced by the movements of metal ions, so it is physically impossible for the metals to be locked in place when a battery is created.


3. Does the mercury released from dental amalgams enter the patient’s body?
This is also no longer an issue. T.W.Clarkson and L. Friberg did a good review of these studies in the toxicology reference “The Biological Monitoring of Toxic Metals”. These doctors are acknowledged to be the world’s most foremost experts on mercury toxicology. The published human autopsy studies were discussed, all of which showed a statistical correlation between the number of amalgam fillings present, and the amount of mercury found in the brain tissue of the studies.

More recent published research from the University of Calgary School of Medicine, has traced a rapid transfer of mercury from the fillings into the tissue of animals, including the fetuses of pregnant women. The researchers are finding that amalgam-derived mercury continues to build up in the bodies of animals over time.


4. Does the mercury from amalgam fillings reach harmful levels within the patient’s body?
The key here is the form of mercury in question: Mercury vapor! Although many poisons have a “toxic threshold” (the level of exposure above which cases harm, but below which does not), toxicology authorities say that mercury vapor does not! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stated that for fillings or mercury vapor “no threshold for those and other effects has been clearly established, and the dose-response relationship does not exhibit any clear threshold”.

In presenting its guidelines for worker exposure to mercury, the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and health states that “it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish a level at which no effects are observed”.

Most research reported from the University of Calgary, and the University of Georgia, has begun to show specific harmful effects from mercury exposure in animals provided with mercury and amalgam silver fillings. A dramatic (almost 50%) reduction in kidney function, within one month after the placement of the amalgam fillings was found after one study.

In the other study, a significant alteration in the normal status of gastro-intestinal microorganisms was found in the animals with mercury amalgam fillings implanted in the teeth. The observed alterations could have dramatic impact on the health status of the recipients, as well as certain aspects of medical therapy.